Auckland Tuatara coach Aaron Young believes he has the tools within his roster to win the 2022 Sal’s NBL in his club’s inaugural season.
The Tuatara have signed Tall Blacks Rob Loe and Taki Fahrensohn, American imports Chris Johnson and Siler Schneider and a host of talented young local players including collegiate stand-out Dan Fotu and boom sophomore Dontae Russo-Nance.
“I love the group that we have – we have got some really good size, good balance of experience but also some young talent that we want to try and build around and give them opportunities as well,” Young said.
“The guys that are coming in are really high character people, so it is really starting to come together nicely.”
While talent obviously wins championships the Tuatara have gone out of their way to assemble a roster full of players that display the right character traits and those that are happy to put the team first.
They targeted players that had reputations of being good in a team environment as they look help bring a host of amateur players into the fold this season.
“It [a player’s character] is massive – we have guys that are coming in and out – it is just the nature of our league,” Young explained. “People are coming in from different teams straight off the season. We have guys coming in fresh off experiences in the States, so it is really important that we have a foundation so that when they come in everyone around them are supportive of what we are trying to build.
“So when they come in it is a seamless step. If we have the right people involved with that it becomes a lot easier to manage everything in the long term.”
Young has followed what other teams have done in what is a very unique season. Teams have been able to sign tier 1 players (local players) for a number of months while tier 2 players (international players) only opened once the government eased travel restrictions.
It meant some teams focused on tier one while others waited for tier two to open before committing to spending their money.
Some teams have also chosen to spend the cap while others haven’t, knowing crowd numbers and sponsorship revenue are likely to be harder to achieve this year.
“It is interesting – there are a lot of good signings around the league,” Young explained. “The coaches are high-level coaches and you can see that from the rosters they are putting together.
“For me, it is hard to say if anyone is going to stand out right now because last year it didn’t quite go that way [reflective of team strength on paper].
“I am just excited to have a good league with some really good teams and some high-level talent.
“That is what I am looking forward to the most – the challenge of preparing for those teams and those players every week.”
The Tuatara begin their first season in the Sal’s NBL on Saturday night when they host the Taranaki Mountainairs at Eventfinda Stadium from 7.30pm.
Memberships and tickets can be purchased via www.tuatarabasketball.com.